This fight's a real cliffhanger

Taking a dim view of LG's plan for Palisades headquarters.

Ned Sullivan says a proposed office tower in New Jersey would ruin a Hudson River vista enjoyed by New Yorkers.

Anyone who's ever dreamed of an apartment overlooking Central Park or been wowed by the city's towering skyline knows the power of a good view.

Ned Sullivan is waging a fight to preserve what he says is the city's ultimate vista: a stretch of the Palisades cliffs on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, north of Fort Lee, that looks much as it did when George Washington fought the British in upper Manhattan during the Revolutionary War.

"Tens of thousands of people a day witness this national treasure and take inspiration and renewal from it," Mr. Sullivan said.

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To keep it that way, Mr. Sullivan, who is president of environmental organization Scenic Hudson, is fighting Korean electronics giant LG, which won permission last year to build a 143-foot tower for its U.S. headquarters there. That ruling overturned an ordinance that restricted buildings from breaking the tree line.

Mr. Sullivan, 59, launched two lawsuits to block the development and has waged a campaign that has won support from key figures such as Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman. A New Jersey state Senate subcommittee on June 5 recommended a height limitation that would block the tower. That bill would need approval from Gov. Chris Christie, who has been silent on the issue.

Mr. Sullivan, a Williams College and Yale management and forestry grad, is a former environmental commissioner of Maine and deputy commissioner of New York's Department of Environmental Conservation. He believes building shorter will be better for LG in the long term.

"They could still have a world-class headquarters and create the jobs here with this project," Mr. Sullivan said. "And then we'd celebrate them for being environmental stewards."